Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Charter Commission pulling a fast one

They didn’t say it in so many words, but the 2010 Charter Revision Commission members are heading in the direction of giving the mayor even more power than Mike Bloomberg has today — at the expense of the City Council and government transparency.

How: by creating a new “reporting commission,” putatively to get rid of unnecessary advisory bodies and trim the number of reports the mayor has to submit each year. Some of those reports are not used. But the charter revision commission would give the new reporting commission the power to review (and reject?) any future City Council decision to “extend or enhance” a report the mayor already provides.

Because a majority of the members of the reporting commission would be appointed by — you guessed it — the mayor, he would be able to frustrate the Council if it wants to ask for additional information from his agencies: a loss for the Council and transparency, and a gain for him.

After almost four months of working together to shape the city charter’s future, the 15 charter commission members undoubtedly have developed a strong sense of team identity and mutual respect. They also probably understand that the most important external critic of their performance is the mayor who appointed them — and whose remaining incumbency and personal wealth could give him the power to shape their professional futures.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

When an already ignorant electorate continues to go about their daily lives immersed in trivialities like chronic moronic text messaging; is "Fios" better than my "Time Warner" or "Direct TV" service; did you see what "Lady Ga Ga" wore last night on Oprah's show?; we will be handing off democracy one bit at a time to voracious demagogues who are waiting in the wings to impose their will upon our city, state or country!

Mayor Bloomberg is one such dangerous foe. He's extremely rich and has already bought his office 3 times!

The success of the Emperor Bloomberg show could not have been possible without a strong supporting cast of an apathetically uninformed public.

You've gotten what you deserve by not paying careful attention to what is really important to your daily existence...who you put into public office!

The takeover by Adolph Hitler and his henchmen in Nazi Germany at first began slowly.

It picked up speed as the populace traded off their voice in government for some showy but empty promises of a better Germany.

Isn't it a coincidence that Michael Reuben Bloomberg is a German Jew?

Probably like one of those in the 1930s who would have betrayed his own coreligionists by insisting that he was a German before he was a Jew when questioned by the Gestapo.

Reich's Chancellor Bloomberg is unfortunately the current mayor of NYC who would obviously prefer to be its emperor like another sawed off idol runt of his...Napoleon Bonaparte.

Le Grande Bloomberg...Heil Bloomberg...King Michael The First...is one of the most treacherous elitist political leaders this city has seen.

New York City doesn't have a "legislature" - it's got a bloated executive branch - a mayor and a bunch of mayoral (or deputy mayor or commission) wannabes in the City Council - All the real laws that impact the city get passed in Albany or Washington. It would be better just to eliminate the City Council.

The people in our city are so fascinated with the wealthy Mayor Moneybags. Overall, people are just plain fascinated with the rich and famous. Exhibit A: New York City!

Another reason he was re-elected: everybody felt that mayor Moneybags was the only person who could lead NYC out of the recession. So everyone voted for him again.

The persistent feeling that only a billionaire with business sense could save the city from an economic calamity. And yes Mayor Moneybags brought himself a third term and a bunch of stuff that went on behind closed doors.

People in office do whatever they want without consequences. We are seeing that happen now.

when the n.y.c.democrat party gives us candidates that are weak,paid for agents of the municipal unions ,s.e.i.u.,t.w.u.,working families party, etc,we vote in a ultra wealthy rino for mayor. he has the business background and has learned to make a payroll.

commenter #1 appears to be a biographer of barry obama?

sanctuary city bloomberg does do nutty things and should be impeached or recalled for them.

This is one more move by BloomInc to extend their rule beyond his term--one more quasi governmental body that becomes part of a larger permanent govt. PlaNYC is part of that, the waterfront plan too, and the BIDs, friends of the parks and whatever--parallel or shadow govts. not beholden to the people, with no oversight or transparency--and huge budgets.

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